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full screen The dead Russian regime critic Alexei Navalny is honored worldwide. The picture was taken in Rome, Italy. Photo: Andrew Medichini/AP/TT
What happened to the remains of the Russian regime critic Alexei Navalny is shrouded in obscurity, four days after the death sentence.
Over 60,000 people have called on Russian authorities to hand over the body to the family.
The tens of thousands of individual calls have been sent to the national Russian Investigative Committee, at the request of the human rights organization OVD-Info, reports the Novaya Gazeta newspaper.
The same authority announced late on Monday that Navalny’s remains had been sent away for a two-week “chemical examination”.
Driven around?
At the same time, more details are emerging about what may have happened to the body immediately after Friday’s death sentence. The remains are said to have first been transported to a mortuary in the town of Labytnangi, 36 kilometers from the penal colony in Charp where Navalny was held. But later the body was reportedly taken to the district hospital in the regional capital Salechard, according to Novaya Gazeta’s sources. An ambulance driver told the newspaper that the procedure was unusual – dead prisoners are usually taken directly to the premises of the forensics office.
– They drove him to the mortuary, took him in and put two police officers in front of the door, says the ambulance driver.
It is the mortuary into which the Putin critic Navalny’s mother and lawyer, who was later admitted, was not allowed to enter.
According to reports over the weekend, Navalny’s body had bruises consistent with some type of stroke, chest compressions or being restrained during convulsions.
Putin’s antagonist
Lawyer and opposition politician Alexei Navalny has been described over the years as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s worst enemy. A large number of Western leaders now blame Putin for Navalny’s death.
In recent days, several hundred Russians who honored his memory have been arrested.
Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, has vowed to continue her husband’s work.
FACTS Alexei Navalny
Alexei Navalny was a lawyer, blogger, regime critic and anti-corruption activist. He became known for his sharp criticism of President Vladimir Putin and the sphere of power in the Kremlin and was often called “the man Putin fears most”. Navalny published documents that revealed abuses of power by members of parliament and politicians, including their secret luxury properties abroad.
Navalny revealed Putin’s luxury palace on the Black Sea with amphitheater, underground ice hockey arena and casino. The film about the palace on the shores of the Black Sea quickly gained millions of views on YouTube. Putin has denied that the property is in his possession.
Navalny also stood on the barricades during the wave of anti-Putin protests and tried to run for president himself in 2018, but was stopped for unclear reasons.
In August 2020, Navalny became acutely ill during a flight from Siberia. He was treated for a long time in Germany, and there it was established that he had been poisoned with the nerve agent novichok, something the Kremlin denied. After his recovery, Navalny returned home to Russia on January 17, 2021, where he was arrested.
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